Customs Revamps Enforcement at Borders

Estelle Leslie

Many are of the opinion that the role of the department is really to have customs officers stationed at border/entry points searching your luggage and groceries and fining you. But the mandate of the Customs and Excise Department is really for security measures at entry points. Leslie says that the event showcases risk management practices of the department.

Estelle Leslie, Acting Deputy Comptroller, Customs

“And that is why today is important because in showcasing risk management, we are telling people that now customs department is working more smartly. We are analyzing risk and using risk criteria to target high risk shipment and then use our resources in doing that. And the importation that doesn’t pose a lot of risk, we are releasing those and then after, we go in and do post audit on those things. If you notice we have several different organizations and departments because the supplies chain that customs work on is not customs alone. When you are talking about exportation of woods and other stuffs, we work with other departments like the forest depart and things like that. Data analysis helps us identify risk area. Right now we have the Central Information Technology Office, because they are doing like an e-governance government where they are getting all of these departments online electronically. And that will assist customs a lot in identifying, like you rightly said—things that shouldn’t be exported or shouldn’t be imported—we will be able to track that at a very early age. So that is why we invited our stakeholders so that Belizeans know that it is not customs alone; we have other organizations and departments that we work with.”